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“No, I’m staying on the boat, I hate rattling around the house on my own when they’re not here,” I say absentmindedly.
“Why don’t you just come and stay at Arlo’s, it’s not like you don’t already have your own room there,” Tally says, looking to Arlo who just shrugs.
“Bro, you know you’re always welcome, you have your key, just move in till your parents get back,” Arlo says.
“I’m fine. Staying on The Escape isn’t exactly a punishment and Tally honey, you know I adore you, you’re like my sister. But you’re loud and I can’t listen to you scream Arlo’s name anymore, I had enough of that when we were all staying there,” I say, laughing at her horrified expression.
“Carson,” she screams, slapping my arm before she turns and buries her bright red face in Arlo’s chest.
“Little Ghost I love it when you scream my name,” Arlo laughs, wrapping his arms around her and kissing the top of her head.
“See you guys tomorrow,” I say, laughing as I lean down and press a kiss to Tally’s cheek before I climb into my car and drive away from school.
The marina is bustling with life by the time I park my car in the lot and I cross the short distance to The Escape, nodding and waving at all the people who greet me. I’ve stayed here every night since mine and Priss’s morning here and I refuse to think about why that is. Her scent is gone, but I still haven’t gone home even though I know I should. I should let the cleaning crew erase every trace of her being here, but for some inexplicable reason I just can’t.
Priss doesn’t owe me anything, we’re not a couple, we had one meaningless sexual encounter. So why is it that I’m furious that she dismissed me like I was a barely tolerated employee. Carrigan Archibald is a bitch. She treated her identical twin sister like shit for years, so it really shouldn’t come as a surprise that she would do the same to me.
“Thank you for the help.”
I can still hear her voice saying the words in my head and anger bursts to life inside of me.
“Thank you for the help.”
After what we shared, does she even care how much of a punch in the teeth a thank you and fuck off was?
When I think about Carrigan, all I can see is the way she’s hurt Tally, how manipulative she is, how evil. But Priss, the girl I spent the morning with the other day, she’s nothing like that, she’s quiet and nervous and unsure. Priss was beautiful and passionate and complex. But the problem is that Carrigan and Priss are the same person and I don’t know how to accept that. I don’t know how to combine the two sides of the single person.
Heading for my bedroom, I strip out of my uniform and pull on a pair of loose basketball shorts before making my way back into the living room and slumping down onto the couch, reaching for the TV remote.
There’s homework I should be doing, but I don’t care, I want some food, a few beers, and to talk to my parents and brother, but instead I find my fingers reaching for my cell and typing out another text to Priss.
Me – I thought I made myself clear, if I ask you a question I expect you to reply.
I wait for a moment, but she doesn’t reply and the urge to hunt her ass down becomes so potent I almost rise from my seat before I remember that she’s nothing to me.
It was my condition that it was only once, that we’d have sex once and then it would be done, only now I’m not finished and this isn’t over. My cell beeps, pulling me from the edge of irrational rage and I grab it from the couch and lift it up.
Priss – I’m just taking some time. I texted Tallulah, she knows I’m okay.
My eyes devour her words but instead of consoling me, they only make me angrier.
Me – What the hell are you playing at ignoring her until now? She was worried.
Priss – I already told you I spoke to her, she gets it.
My jaw clenches and I have to literally shake my head to escape the unbidden rage that her response has evoked. Before I can stop myself, my fingers are moving across the screen, typing words that I shouldn’t be thinking, let alone saying.
Me – I want to fuck you again.
Hitting send, I throw my cell across the couch hating that I’ve admitted it, hating that it’s true. I don’t know if it’s my ego that’s raising its ugly head because she walked away from me the other morning, or if it’s that she was so amenable, doing what I told her to do without question, or maybe it’s just that for those few hours she was soft and unsure. I don’t know. All I know is that I want more, one more time, a few more hours with her beneath me, while she’s mine.
She doesn’t reply and I’m not surprised. She’s so fucking cold and disassociated that I doubt she felt anything more than the ache between her legs after I took her virginity. Maybe her elusiveness is part of the reason that I want to control her so much, either way I’m a fool for giving her even an ounce of power over me.
Crossing to the kitchen I glance into the empty refrigerator, wishing it was full of food instead of bare except for the remains of last night’s take-out. I need to get some groceries, or at least ask our house keeper to do it for me, because I hate living on take-out.
Eyeing my cell like it’s a poisonous snake I grab my laptop from my backpack, turn it on and open up a food delivery service, choosing a take-out meal from a nice local restaurant and quickly ordering it.
Frustrated, I cross to the wet bar that’s built into the wall of the galley, and always stocked, and pull out a beer. The emptiness of the boat seems to shrink around me and for the first time in a while, I feel lonely. I have places I could be, hell I could take up Arlo and Tally’s offer and move in with them, but most of the time I don’t mind being alone.
But I can’t spend time with Priss’s twin tonight. Tally might be my friend, but I can’t look at her identical face without thinking of her prickly sister. If Priss’s lack of reply has taught me anything it’s that me and my dick need to forget all about Carrigan Archibald.
